Search and Rescue

    Norvan and Montevic ran. They ran out of the village and into the hills, becoming absolutely drenched as they went. Eventually, they ran out of breath and plopped down in the grass. Norvan laughed, dizzy with relief and adrenaline, and Montevic smiled for the first time in weeks.
    Norvan caught his breath and found himself filled with questions. “So. How’ve you been? What happened? What did you do to that cyborg?”
    Montevic let out a long breath. “That would be my friend, Wyrden. Er - the shadow.”
    “It has a name now?”
    “Yes, it’s been my only companion for this last...however long this has been. It named itself, chose a name dredged up from my memories.”
    “Wyrden,” Norvan repeated thoughtfully. “A good choice. It fits. Uh - can it hear me? Can I talk to it?” He looked down at the puddle of darkness at Montevic’s feet.
    “I can hear you.” Montevic’s voice had taken on a flat tone, and their face had gone blank. Blank as a corrupted drone.
    “Yeah, I know, I was asking if it could -” Norvan made a connection. “The fuck? Montevic?”
    Montevic blinked, then shuddered. “Sorry. I should have warned you.” They rubbed the palm of their prosthetic hand. “The only reason I’m free of the hive mind is because I’m host to another of the same kind of...entity. Wyrden. So as the evil machine-mind can control all the cyborgs in the network thanks to their implants, my own machine-mind can control my body through the same enhancements. It’s not as bad as it sounds. Wyrden’s the only reason I have any control of my mind at all.”
    Norvan frowned uncertainly. “I...suppose that’s better than the alternative. But you can’t control when it takes over? That sounds...terrifying.”
    Montevic shrugged. “You get used to it. It doesn’t do that very often, anyway - it has its own means of interacting with things anyway, and it usually asks first.” They said the last bit rather pointedly, and the shadow sloshed in some kind of response.
    “Okay.” Norvan didn’t feel particularly reassured, but if Montevic wasn’t worried, he wasn’t going to let them know he was. “So...what happened? Since we were separated.”
    “I was going to ask you the same question.” Montevic stood up. “Let’s get moving, first. We can talk on the way out of here.”

    The duo made sure they were some distance from the ruined village before either of them spoke. It was Montevic who first broke the silence.
    “So. What happened with you? Where’d you go? I...I kind of assumed you were dead.”
    “That’s what everyone said I should think about you.” Norvan frowned. “I’m glad I didn’t. Anyway, Hanto Magnata...saints, it feels so long ago. Hard to believe it’s only been a few weeks. We were together, and then there was one of those cyborgs, and I ran, and I didn’t realize you weren’t with me until it was too late. The fire had spread; I couldn’t get back to you. So I kept going. Made it to the shore. People were evacuating in boats. I waited as long as I could, hoping you’d make it out, but you didn’t show. I left. One of the biggest regrets of my life, I think.”
    “Touching.” Montevic said it with a sarcastic tone, but Norvan could tell he really meant it. “What happened next? Did Danti make it?”
    Norvan nodded. “He’s fine; I left him somewhere safe. I was on one of the boats that headed out to another island and set up this floating site, the Offshore Colony. I was kind of banged in the whole mess so I stuck around, helped out where I could. But eventually I realized...I couldn’t leave you behind. I couldn’t stand not knowing what had happened to you. Even if you were dead or worse, I had to know for sure. So I left. Walked all the way up Tonpelli looking for you. The Sixth Sight must have been watching over me or something, ‘cause somehow, I found you.”
    “I...” Montevic was at a loss for words. “Thank you. I’m glad you’re okay. And I’m grateful you found me.”
    Norvan squeezed their hand. “So’m I. Don’t get lost again, okay?”
    “Yes, sir.” Montevic cracked a tired smile.

    “So, what about you?” Norvan asked after some time of walking in weary silence.
    “What?”
    “Well, I told you what happened to me when we were apart. What about you? How’d you get...borgified?” Norvan asked, gesticulating.
    “Oh. Uh. That’s a story, I guess,” Montevic said, seeming reluctant. “Well, I did manage to make it out of the city after we got split up. I spent a while looking for you before that, but the whole fire and explosions thing made it difficult, y’see. But I got out into the countryside and stayed in some kind of shed for a while. There was no one around - I think they all ran from the cyborg creatures. But I didn’t know where to go, and I thought you might still be around, so I stayed put. Then...then the city had stopped burning, and I didn’t know where else to look for you, and I went - I went back.
    “I don’t know what I was thinking, running back in there. There was so much ash and nothing alive there but cyborgs; there was no way you’d be there. But of course I got cornered. I thought I was going to die, but they gave me a good whack instead and dragged me off to their headquarters. That’s - uh - that’s when they tried to turn me into one of them.” Montevic’s voice shook.
    Norvan cringed at Montevic’s distress. “Uh, it’s okay, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
    Montevic shook their head. “I - at least I wasn’t conscious for the surgery. Mostly. All I can say is I’m glad Tonpelli medical tech is better than ours. But you don’t know how horrifying it is to wake up with your arm not quite yours anymore and your insides rearranged.”
    “I’m sorry,” Norvan said reflexively. “At least you got your fingers back?”
    Montevic flexed their prosthetic digits. “I guess that’s the only upside. If it was only the hand, maybe I wouldn’t mind so much. But they put wires in my brain, or something like that. I figure that’s what the...thing uses to control them. It tried to take me over, when I first woke up. The only reason I’m not a zombie like all the others is because Wyrden got their first, and I guess there’s only room for one ancient machine-mind in my brain.” They paused. “I don’t remember what happened after Wyrden took over. It told me it pretended to be like them, mimicked their frequency or behavior or something, I’m not sure. Somehow, it worked. Wyrden took advantage of that to walk us out of the city and back into the country. I’m not sure how long I was out, but when I came to, I was nowhere I recognized and I was more tired than I’ve been in my entire life.
    “After that, I just tried to stay alive, mostly. I scavenged for food and tried to stay out of the way of the cyborgs, mimicking if I had to. Sometimes Wyrden took over when I didn’t have the strength to keep going, or just for the hell of it. And then...you showed up.”
    “Wow.” Norvan shook his head. “That’s a lot to go through.”
    Montevic laughed weakly. “I know, right? I just keep getting more fucked up.”
    Norvan gently pushed Montevic. “Don’t say that! There’s nothing wrong with you, dumbass.”
    “Idiot,” Montevic returned the shove with a smile.
    “Moron.”
    “Nerd.”

    The next night, after a long rest, Montevic raised a concern. “Where are we going to go? I met some regular curios a couple of times; they didn’t seem to like me very much. Shot at me, in fact. Are they really going to let us past, with me looking all half-robot and all?”
    Norvan grimaced. “Ah...I hadn’t thought about it. Those freedom fighters, the Blues, they don’t seem very forgiving from what I’ve heard. I don’t think they’d be persuaded even with your whole non-mind-controlled state.”
    Montevic nodded. “I must be an anomaly.”
    “Although, actually,” Norvan remembered. “I’ve heard there are a few tech-touched out there that didn’t get taken over for whatever reason. You’re not the only one.”
    “Without me to guard them? I find that hard to believe.” Montevic’s voice had gone flat again. They blinked twice and spoke normally. “Sorry, that’s going to be problematic.”
    “It’s fine,” Norvan said quickly, trying to ignore his unease. “I think it’s just some quirk of their implants or something. Public attitude is mixed about them, though. Some just don’t trust they won’t eventually get taken over. I think the majority of them live in their own little colony somewhere.”
    “We could go there,” Montevic suggested. “Where’s this non-evil cyborg colony?”
    “Somewhere in the mangrove forests, I think.” Norvan stopped and reached into his backpack and pulled out a map of Tonpelli, marked with locations of several different settlements. “It should be on here...but it’s too dark to see.”
    “Here.” Montevic held their robotic hand over the map. The palm glowed a bright orange, illuminating the map with a dim glow.
    Norvan raised an eyebrow. “Neat trick.”
    “Thanks.” Montevic peered at the map. “It’s here, right? And we’re somewhere over here. We could get there in a few days, though we might need a boat.”
    “This would be so much easier with a linny,” Norvan sighed. “But you’re right. This tech-touched settlement seems like your best bet, at least until we can get back to the mainland.”
    “It’s decided. All we have to do is make sure we don’t run into any evil cyborgs or hostile curios on the way there. We can manage that, right?”
    Norvan glanced around, looking for stray cyborgs. “As long as you don’t do anything stupid. We should get moving. We’ve only got so long until sunrise.”
    Montevic’s smile was interrupted by a yawn. “If you say so. Saints, I missed you.”
    “Missed you too, buddy. Let’s get out of here.”